Sign



Patented Apr. 7, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 11 Claims.

The invention relates in general to display signs of the type which are intended to be viewed either from the front side by light directly reflected from the front side, or viewed by light transmitted therethrough, and the present invention constitutes a development of the canvas signs with their celluloid letters disclosed in my copending application Serial N o. 700,209, filed November 29, 1933.

The primary object of the invention is to simplify the method of mounting the preformed Celluloid letters, and like sign characters, on a canvas awning or similar flexible support, and the Vinvention also has for other objects the providing of an improved form of sign considered as a whole and an improved form of separate sign character formed of a minimum amount of material, of thin gauge material to facilitate light transmission and at the same time designed to provide integral reinforcements to resist distortion while in use over a long period of time.

In the above identified application the cut-out openings in the canvas support and in rear of the letters mounted on the support had to be preformed before the preformed letters were applied in place on the canvas. In applying separate letters to form a Word the different letters are not equally spaced apart but are adjusted and shifted back and forth relative to each other, until they give `the visual impression of being equally spaced, or as expressed by the sign men, until the word looks right, As the letters are not actually spaced apart equidistantly, extreme difficulty has been experienced particularly by the inexperienced awning men in properly prelocating the cut-outs in the canvas support and they had to be properly located otherwise the letters themselves would be improperly located.

The present disclosure in its method aspects features the locating of the actual letters and other sign characters to be used in their proper visually corrected location so as to makeup the required word, positioning the letters on the sheet of canvas prior to being cut to form the cut-outs,

and then securing the letters in their position as so located thus preforming the sign exactly as it ywill look when completed and when viewed from the front side. Usually the sign characters are provided with a fiat narrow mounting flange so that it is simply necessary to cement the letter, flange down to the fiat upper exposed side ofthe canVasSuppOrt. Then reversing the canvas and with the rear side thereof exposed, and using the inner edge of the attaching flange as a guide, the .material stretched back of each of the characters by virtue of the fact that it is secured to the outlining ange is cut away, thus insuring the proper location of each opening relative to the next, and the exactly proper form of individual opening back of each letter or other sign character used.

Celluloid letters of the type under discussion, and even in the halfround channel form disclosed in the above identified application, have a tendency especially after they have been in use for a year or so, to bend or become distorted, the bending usually taking place about an axis extending transversely to the length of the letter or somewhere about the line 4 4 of Figure 2. It has been found that if these channels are of a trapeze form in cross section, being at on top, that is on the most advanced part of the letter, with fiat diverging side walls connecting the flat portion with the at attaching flange, such forms of letters were not so liable to become bent or distorted as with the older forms.

Another objection to known forms of signs of this character and which the present disclosure is designed to remedy, is that after extended use the canvas support is apt to shrink and Where the characters project, as in the prior application from the rear side beyond the front side of the canvas through the preformed openings, the tensioned canvas eventually tends to pull away from the letter, exposing to view a jagged or irregular looking edge Which tends to destroy the original neat appearance of the sign. Accordingly the present disclosure features the mounting of the characters on the front side of the canvas support, preferably by cementing the mounting flange to the canvas and which manner of mounting def-eats any tendency of the distorted canvas from in any way modifying the original appearance of the letter even if the canvas does become stretched or wrinkled after long use.

Still another object of the invention, and still featuring the objective to provide a neat appearing sign, is to utilize the exposed side of the mounting flange as an outlining display border of a color contrasting with the design or letter forming part of the character and preferably also contrasting with the color of the supporting canvas so as to form a letter With a sharply defined and permanently fixed Width of bordering outline.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will be in part obvious from an inspection of the accompanying drawing and in part will be more fully set forth in the following vparticular description of one form of structure embodying the invention, and the invention also consists in certain new and novel features of construction and combination of parts hereinafter set forth and claimed.

In the drawing:

Fig. l is a view of the rear side of a portion of the sign illustrating a preferred embodiment-of the invention and showing the rear side of the letter A in position on the opposite or front side of the sign and with the outlining opening back of the A partly cut away and illustrating a step in the method feature of the present disclosure;

Fig. 2 is a view in front elevation of a portion of the sign showing the. reverse or front side of the letter A from that shown in Fig. l, and showing part of the next succeeding letter of the word; and i Figs. 3 and 4 are each enlarged transverse sectional views taken respectively on the lines 3--3 and 1 -l of Fig. 2.

In the drawing and referring first to Fig. 1 there is shown van awning having a depending front apron or flap i=3 formed of canvas or sinnlar flexible fabric constituting a flexible support for the sign or letter characters, one oi' which A is shown at il in the several gures and a part of a diierent one P is partially shown at the right of Fig. 2. It will be understood that the sign is formed by positioning a strip of the canvas lil on a flat support so as to stretch it free of wrinkles and the like, and the necessary characters il, etc. are laidin line or as otherwise required on the top face I3 of the sheet of canvas le. Following known practices the letters are spaced apart and adjusted in line relative to each other to give the proper appearance to the spaced letters. The positions ci the letters are then conventionally chalked or marked on the canvas and an adhesive lil is applied to the rear edge of the character and each character replaced in its proper marked position on the canvas. In practice a rubber cement is found to be satisfactory and after the character is permitted to lie on the canvas for about an hour, it is permanently xed in place. Then the sign as a whole is reversed in position so as to bring the rear side uppermost as indicated in Fig. 1 and then by means of a scissors guided along the outlining rear edge i5 of the letter, the. intervening material it is cut away as indicated in Fig,V l, leaving the opening il having the outline form of the letter. In this way the opening Il with its outlining 'edge or periphery I8 will be of the proper conguration and size and will be properly located in rear of its associated character as the character itself forms the templet or pattern for cutting the opening. As the cut-out portion i6 is held stretched during the act of cutting it from the canvas, there is no pulling of the remaining portions of the canvas out of place in the region about the letter and no particular skill is necessary in forming the cut-out as was the case where the cut-cut had to be preformed in order that the letter might t snugly into the cut-out. In those cases where the letter is provided with an outstanding mounting ange it as inthe illustration, this flange provides at its in ner edge l5 a rugged guide strip for guiding the scissors or other cutting tool along the inner edge or" the letter. As the adjacent part of the character is hollow, as shown in Fig. 4, clearance is provided at 2B to receive the intruded end of th shears blades.

The charactersV are of similar construction except for` their obvious differences in conguration so that the detailed description of one will suffice for any of the others. The characters are each an integral pressing from a thin sheet of celluloid and are each semi-iiexible and of relatively light weight. The characterY in the illustrated case forms primarily'a translucent letter or design forming part 2l forming a letter of a block character. Each character is formed primarily of corrugations, trough-shaped in cross section and which includes a flat web 22 and diverging side walls 23 and 263 and which design forming part is outlined by the outstanding mounting flange i9. As noted in Fig. 2 in the case of the letter A, the depressed portion 26 formed in the angle between the legs of the A is covered by an opaque filler 2l of a color contrasting with the design forming part 2l. Y

Rather than fasten the Celluloid ange directly to the canvas, it is herein suggested that the flange be covered on both sides by an edge lapping opaque binding 28 preferably formed of fabric and in the illustrated case it is the inner face of the binding 23 which is coated with the adhesive l in the mounting oi the character in place on the awning before the cut-outs have been formed.

The character is made much deeper considered from front to rear than has been possible before duey to the trapeze form giving the necessary structural strength even when the material has been excessively thinned out in the pressing operation in forming the character.

In one popular form of the invention the translucent design forming part is made of bright red translucent and almost transparent, thin sheet Celluloid. The iiller 2l and the outer exposed side of the binding it is of dark blue.; the red character with the blue background forming a pleasing eiect, particularly when positioned'on canvas, the front side of which is of some other color contrasting with the blue, such as white.

The fact that the flat sides 2S of each corrugation extend at an angle to their flat tops 22 has the effect of causing the exposed design to have a high-light face contrasting with a relatively shaded yface, depending on the direction of the impinging light with the result that a pleasing contrast is provided in different parts of theI character. For instance, the red letter is a bright red' on the side facing the reliected light and a darker red on a side or sides extending at an angle to the line of impinging light. To a less extent this diiference in shading in the different flat faces is also noticeable at night when the character is illuminated by light transmitted from a source in rear of the sign.

The apparently rearwardly positioned front side of the flange 28 and the facings 2l forming the fillers in those forms of letters which have internal openings, are of the same dark color, blue in the illustrated case, and thus fo-rm a background which has the effect oi more prominently displaying and apparently projectingforwardly the brighter colored letter or design forming part.

The trapezoidal form of letters herein illustrated does not become bent intoy a distorted set form even when subjected to severe climatic changes. It is assumed that the resistance to bending is due to the iiat walls forming the sides of the channels. For instance, wall 23 acts as a truss to defeat or tends to defeat the prior warping of similar forms of Celluloid lettering. In the known forms the points corresponding to the points 29 and 30 moved outwardly in the direcvtion indicated bygthe arrows while the .mid-

portion about 3| remained in place. In the form of letter herein disclosed the points 29 and 30 .donot move .outward and the letter is maintained in' its original form. rIhis is explained on the .theory .that the side Walls 23 act as a truss with Y. the daytime, and that at night the design forming part 2| of a letter is visible from the front side of the sign by light originating from `the :source such as the source L in rear of the sign. In any case, there will be displayed to view a @neat form of lettering or other design with the .sharply dened outlining edges provided which are present in the binding 28'when the char acters were originally formed as a factory cornposition. This outlining binding is put on the flange of the character by machine operation canvas and similar fabric awnings in that with the adhesive applied, there is provided eventually a fabric-to-fabric joint which is quite eifective in securing the characters in place even where the sign is made up by unskilled Workmen.

It is a feature of this disclosure that the sign remains as it was originally constructed even after it has been in use for a long period of time. Even if the canvas stretches or otherwise becomes distorted in the portions thereof between the characters, such distortion has no noticeable effect upon the original arrangement of the characters nor upon the characters themselves. The sign as a whole has practically the same degree of flexibility as if the characters were not present. As the characters themselves are not perfectly rigid but are capable of at least some flexure, the characters are not torn away from the canvas when subjected to the effect of violent Winds. The outlining ilange I9 is continuous about the entire outline of the character and thus acts as a frame and the corrugations forming the characters give to the article as a whole the reinforcing effect characterizing corrugated sheet plates. This providing of structural strength to the formed character by virtue of its corrugated conformation permits the use of a relatively thin gauge of Celluloid or equivalent material and this in turn permits the forming of an extremely brilliant letter when the light passes through the same from the rear source of illumination.

While there have been shown, described and pointed out in the annexed claims, certain novel features of the invention, it will be understood that various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention.

I claim:

1. In the art of forming signs, the method which consists in laying a sheet of flexible material at on a support, applying an adhesive to the underside of the outlining flange of a sign character of hollow form, applying the adhesive-applied side of the iiange on top of the material, and permitting the character Ato adhere permanently to the material and then causing a cutting tool to be guided along the inner` edge of the flange while cutting out ofthel material the portion thereof which wasA originally stretched across the 'rear side ofv the character when the character was applied thereby Y, to form in the material andin rear of the character so secured thereto, an opening having the outline of the inner edge orperipheryof the iiange.

2.` In the art of forming signs, thelmethodA which consists in applying adhesive to the underside of a mounting and outlining flange of ahollow rsign `character of which the portion outlined by the inner edge of said character forms adesign, placing the character withy the adhesive' so applied in Contact with an opaque canvas or like support and permitting the character to adhere to the canvas support, then using the inner edge of the ange as a guide cutting away the portion of the canvas support which extended originally across the space outlined bysaid inner edge of the outlining flange therebyto form in the canvas an opening exactly conforming to the configuration of the design to permit light to pass through the canvas support andthrough the design forming part of the sign character.

3. In the artof forming signs, the method which consists in applying a hollow sign vcharacter to a support by aixing an outlining edge of said character to the support, and then using the edge as a guide cutting away the portions of the support lying within the outline formed by the edge thereby to form in the support a cutyout opening conforming to the outline of the sign character.

4. A sign comprising an opaque sheet of flexible fabric provided with spaced apart cut-out openings, a plurality of separate elements, one for each opening, each element comprising an integral, semi-flexible Celluloid-like member of relatively light weight, said member having an attaching ange outlining the same and secured to the front side of the fabric sheet about its respective opening and having a thin translucent, hollow portion projecting from the plane of the securing flange and of a contour to form a deflnite design, said portion projecting forwardly beyond the front side of the fabric sheet and conforming in outline to and covering its respective opening.

5. A flexible sign including an opaque canvas support having applied to the front side thereof a plurality of separate translucent sign characters each including a display design in a color contrasting with the color of the canvas and said support having a plurality of openings therein, one for each character located opposite its respective display design for permitting light to pass through the support from the rear side, each of said characters provided with an outlining mounting flange exposed on the front side of the sign and forming an opaque border visible from the front side of the sign, contrasting in color from that of the design part of the character and contrasting with the color of the canvas, one of said characters including Within the outline of its display design an opaque filler corresponding in color to the color of the border and coacting therewith to form a background to the design.

6. A sign including an opaque canvas support having applied to the front side thereof a plurality of separate translucent sign characters each including a display design in a color contrasting with the color of the canvas vand said support having a plurality of openings thereon,

one for each character llocated opposite its re` spective display design for permitting light to pass through the support from the rear side,

-each of said characters provided with an out- Y translucent parts including relatively raised and depressed areas exposed at the iront side of the character and an opaque ller covering certain of the relatively depressed areas and coacting to display the character when light is transmitted from the rear of the sign through the opening and translucent parts or the characters.

8. A exible sign including an opaque canvas support, a single hollow translucent celluloid letter secured at its rear edges to the front side of the support and projecting forwardly therefrom, said'support provided with an opening having the letter outline and located in rear of the .same to permit light to pass through the canvas and letter, said opening being cut along the inner edge of the hollow, forwardly projecting portion of the letter, and a layer of adhesive betweenthe rear edge of the letter and the cut edge of the canvas loutlining the opening.

9. A sign including a flexible fabric support provided with an opening forming the outline of a character, a preformed hollow sign character covering the opening and provided with an attaching flange secured to the front side of the support about the opening, and a layer of fabric secured to the flange and located between the ange and flexible support to form a fabric-tofabric joint between the character and its support.

l0. A one-piece Celluloid sign character including a hollow, transparent or translucent design forming part outlined by a flange and provided with an opaque fabric binding lapped about the exposed edge of the flange permanently secured thereto and adapted to receive an adhesive on its rear side to mount the character to a support, said` opaque binding acting to outline 'the transparent or translucent hollow design forming part.

ll. A Celluloid-like sign character including a hollow design forming part outlined by a flange and provided within the design with an opaque iiller permanently secured thereto and provided' with a fabric binding lapped about the exposed edge of the ange and adapted to receive an adhesive on its rear side to mount the character to a. support, said filler being of the same color as the fabric binding and both having a color darker than the color of the design toy form a dull and apparently shaded background.

SAMUEL SLUTSKY. 

